Our summer trip to Branson

I know that most of you have seen National Lampoon's Vacation, right?
Well, that movie can be translated into a new Bishop version for our trip to Branson that we took in August.  We planned to go to spend half of our time fishing and the other half relaxing on the beaches of the fabulous Table Rock Lake with some eating and shopping sprinkled in.
Unfortunately, we got there after a month of constant rain and flooding.  The guys were supposed to take a guided bass fishing tour on Table Rock Lake, but that was cancelled because the flood waters were too high.  The beach / sand time that we had been talking to Jackson about for over a month?  Cancelled.  The roads to the beach areas (yes, all of them) were flooded and the rangers at the park said that the beaches were currently under feet of water.  We googled a ton of different park options and guess what?  When we arrived at each one, the playground equipment was, you guessed it, under water.

We went to Silver Dollar City and after much research and a plan and map in hand, ready to tackle the awesome toddler areas, we were informed that they were all taken away as of this season, with the exception of one sand area and a carousel.  Needless to say, after paying over two hundred bucks to get in, we rode that carousel like a million times.  The funny part is that we rode it while sitting on the bench or the "carriage truck," as Jax called it.  The last time we rode, I told him we had to ride on a horse and the lady running the ride got on the loud speaker and said "Yay - he finally graduated to a horse, everyone give him a hand."  It was hilarious.

The guys did take a fishing trip on the nearby White river and had some success, but nothing like they had planned before we left home.  If we had known the conditions of Branson at our time of visit, we definitely would have rerouted our vacation, but since we were there, we made the best of what we had.  We took Jax to some arcades and found some little rides along the strip that he loved.

Overall, we had a fun time because we were all together, but we are hoping that our May trip to Florida will have better luck in both the fishing and sand playing aspects.
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 We loved the plaza area that did water shows a few times a day. 

 We also loved the view from our deck overlooking the flooded lake.  :)

Dad tried some dock fishing at the resort and found a new fishing buddy in this pup.

Beautiful sunsets at the Village

We went to the fish hatchery and saw some awesome fish in this huge tank and then took a tour of how it all works to incorporate releasing the trout into White River.

What would a vacation be without the matching Tshirt tradition that Matt and I started on our 

first vacation together?  Love it.

 We went to a butterfly sanctuary and Jax was surprisingly calm watching them all fly around. 

There were TONS of butterflies!

This is our condo.  We were at the top, right hand corner of this building.

There was a spider web  that just kept taunting me every morning and I walked into it more than I want to admit.  It was huge.

We tried to go swimming at the pool, but this ring that said it was perfect for 3 year olds didn't support Jackson's current weight at 2.  He's beefy.  What can we say?

Some shots from our fishing trip on the river

He's definitely my kid if he likes skee ball this much!

Next up was Silver Dollar City.

 Here is one of our multiple rides on the carriage truck, waving at daddy...

And our last ride - on the horse.

 Last, but certainly not least, is this photo.  It's Ripley's Believe it or Not and it was on our way to basically everything on the strip.  Jackson saw the two story robot outside and refused to get out of the car, citing that it was a "scary robot."  Since then, every robot that we see - on TV, at the toy store, on his pajamas, etc. is a scary robot.  Priceless.